Westcott LED Ring Light Review

Ring lights have traditionally been somewhat expensive. As a result, professional portrait photographers in the middle of the market have tended to only look at them much later in their careers – if at all.

Certainly, fashion photographers with commercial budgets have been using high-end equipment such as the Broncolor Ringflash for years.

So what about the average enthusiast or working pro without a large budget? Luckily the advent of LED technology has brought the fabled ring light into the realm of possibility for a low cost yet high-quality option.

In this review, I use a ring light for the first time ever and give you my honest opinion on whether or not you should consider adding the Westcott 18″ Bi-Color LED Ring Light to your lighting kit.

Build Quality

It would be too easy to give the Westcott Ring Light bad marks for build quality because it’s made of lightweight plastic. However, this is all by design and not because Westcott doesn’t care about quality products.

This ring light comes with a handy carrying case and is made for the mobile generation. The company appears to realize that the outside world is now the studio for creators in stills and video and is emphasizing easy assembly with lightweight yet sturdy materials.

I can see a YouTube content creator or an on-location make up artist carrying this ring light from location to location with no problems.

However, this is not an item that should be exposed to elements like rain, wind, etc.

Light Quality

The Westcott LED Ring Light has a built-in diffuser with a light temperature control that goes from 3200 Kelvin to 5600 Kelvin.

My background light was daylight balanced with a blue gel so I chose the tungsten temperature on the light and in my camera to bring out more of the blue.

I took a number of shots at this session, and in post I had no issues with color consistency from image to image. That’s no surprise to me as this product comes from the same folks who created the Ice Light.

This LED ring light isn’t designed to replace the power output of the high-end flash units, but with today’s clean ISO on most cameras it shouldn’t be an issue.

While I’ve shot portraits professionally for years, I’m quite the novice when it comes to using ring lights.

I experimented with the positioning of my subject and found that I like it when the ring light illuminates within the iris. When it lands outside that portion of the eye, it just looks wrong to me.

Take a look at the two portraits below for examples of the placement of catchlights.

Also, ring lights tend to carve out the face for a shadow-less, flat look. So keep this in mind for portraiture.

If you’re a makeup artist looking for great, consistent light to show off your work on social media you will love the quality here. This is far above the quality that I see from many ring lights that the stylists bring to weddings.

For photographers and videographers wanting a unique look in a no-fuss set up, you’ll find the light quality here excellent as well.

Value for Money

At around US$200 (see latest price here) for a high-quality lighting kit with a boatload of important accessories plus an included travel case, I’d say the Westcott 18″ Ring Light is great value for money.

This portable lighting kit would be a great investment for on-location makeup artist as well as other beauty stylists.

Social media images (and videos) shot in consistently high-quality light are going to raise you above the fray and be good for business.

For run and gun videographers or hybrid content creators, this kit is a high quality yet low-cost option that will give you color consistency across your YouTube or Instagram feed.

For pure stills photographers, this is a great low cost option for a unique look for your portraits or on-location headshot service.